Agenda and minutes

The Former Adult Services and Health Scrutiny Panel - Thursday 3 March 2011 10.00 a.m.

Venue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, Rotherham. S60 2RB

Contact: Dawn Mitchell 01709 22062 Email: dawn.mitchell@rotherham.gov.uk

Items
No.	Item
82.	Declarations of Interest View the background to item 82. Minutes: No declarations of interest were made at the meeting.
83.	Questions from members of the public and the press View the background to item 83. Minutes: There were no members of the press and public present at the meeting.
84.	Assistive Technology Review Update PDF 84 KB Minutes: In accordance with Minute No. 77 of the meeting held on 10^th February, 2011, the Director of Health and Wellbeing submitted an update on progress to date and an evaluation of the current position. This report had previously been considered by the Cabinet Member for Adult Independence Health and Welbeing on 28^th February, 2011. A number of significant changes had been made to the delivery of Assistive Technology (AT) that addressed the issues raised within the Scrutiny report which included:- - Appointment of a dedicated Assistive Technology Officer - Series of visioning events to facilitate the identification of difficulties that staff associated with the provision of AT - Establishment of a system to monitor and demonstrate the savings that AT could achieve - Change in emphasis during the assessment process - Identification of simple and direct access to equipment - Highlighting good news stories with an emphasis on outcome - Better use of available information - Prevention of avoidable admissions to hospital and the prevention/delay of admission to long term residential care - Provision of information and signposting - Direct involvement of staff in developing AT - Better use of resources - Better liaison with Rothercare - Development of benchmarking opportunities Also, action had taken place on the recommendations raised in the report:- - Development of an AT Strategy within NAS with an action plan. There were significant savings to be made by both the Council and NHS Rotherham and had been identified as the next major area for development - A database had been built up to demonstrate the financial savings that could be made from the provision of AT. The next stage was to demonstrate that the provision of AT could lead to significantly improved outcomes for customers - A campaign to raise the profile of AT amongst customers, carers, staff and Members. Case studies had been promoted to demonstrate the outcomes that were possible with AT - Discussions had commenced with major equipment suppliers to bring about a change in provision of lifeline units. New lifeline units were now put in when the customer had extra equipment added rather than as part of a rolling programme. This meant the units were fit for purpose - Allocation of AT was now the default option in every social care assessment that took place in Rotherham. Social Workers now had to explain why they had not considered allocating AT and show the savings that they had made by allocating the equipment - Awareness raising campaign would focus around an AT week in March modelled around the success of previous weeks that had focussed on safeguarding adults and personalisation The Director also gave a powerpoint presentation highlighting the above. Discussion took place with the following issues raised/highlighted;- o There was the danger of a client having all the assistive technology but becoming socially isolated. It was emphasised that assistive technology would not be provided in isolation; if people had care needs they would still receive help to maintain ... view the full minutes text for item 84.
85.	Public Health White Paper Consultation PDF 35 KB Additional documents: Public Health White Paper Appendix 1 , item 85. PDF 32 KB Public Health White Paper Appendix 2 , item 85. PDF 40 KB Minutes: Further to Minute No. 78 of 10^th February, 2011, the Policy and Scrutiny Officer updated the Panel on the draft response to date to the above consultation the deadline for which was 31^st March, 2011. Consultation had taken place with Directorates and other Elected Members via the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee (PSOC). All comments had been incorporated and were to be considered by the Cabinet on 9^th March, 2011, prior to submission. There had been issues in the past with regard to missed opportunities to contribute towards consultations. PSOC had carried out a review of how consultations were managed and had drawn up a procedure, for consideration by the Cabinet. However, this had been an example of how it should work. Resolved:- That the draft response be noted.
86.	Winter Pressures PDF 741 KB Minutes: Dominic Blaydon, Head of Partnerships, Rotherham NHS, gave a powerpoint presentation of an analysis of winter pressures experienced between 5^th December, 2010 and 16^th January, 2011, focussing on activity at Accident and Emergency, Acute Care, GP admissions and the GP Out of Hours service:- - Rotherham Foundation Trust Accident and Emergency - Rotherham Foundation Trust GP Admission Data - Rotherham Foundation Trust Acute Care - Care UK Walk in Centre - Care UK Out of Hours Service - Social Care Response - Mitigation Activity - Future Work Summary - Severe weather event early December - Unprecedented pressure on health community after New Year - Caused by swine flu outbreak with norovirus - Local health and social care service worked in close partnership - Limited disruption to services A&E - Attendances - Breaches - Summary o Unprecedented spike in demand during first 2 weeks of January o Large proportion of admissions during this period – up to 26% o GP outliers – either large practices or in areas of deprivation o 57% of attendances with no follow up or referral to GP o 64% attendances were self-referrals Acute Summary - 54% increase in GP admissions during surge period - RFT operating 50 extra beds above baseline - Electives cancelled for 3 days - Substantial pressure on critical care bed capacity - Patients diverted on 2 occasions - 13 cases of confirmed swine flu - Outbreak of norovirus which took some beds out - Walk in Centre Activity - Out of Hours Activity - Walk in Centre/Out of Hours Summary o 45% increase in demand from week 52 to week 2 o Mitigation activity had an impact o Peak in out of hours activity was before the A&E surge o 43% increase in out of hours activity from week 53 to 3 Mitigation Activity - Initiation of Surge Plan o Reduces threshold for admission to Intermediate Care and Breathing Space o Triggers interventions from community services to support discharge o Places Continuing Care Team on standby to fast track social care assessments o Triggers extra support from Rotherham MBC to support Social Work Team - Emergency Bed Management Meetings Daily reporting on bed status at Rotherham FT Face-to-face support of Community Health Services to support discharge Anticipate pressures on system such as staff sickness and infection control Identify patients who were fit for discharge - Daily Teleconferences o Inform stakeholders where pressures were in system o Enlist Community Services support on maintaining secondary care services o Daily reports from each health agency - Local Sitrep Report Bed availability for RFT, Breathing Space and Intermediate Care Daily activity figures for A&E, YAS, WIC and OOH Social Care Response - Strong support on hospital discharge from intermediate care - Additional social work support within the hospital - Discharges to residential/nursing care expedited effectively - Availability of home care packages on discharge - No delays in social care assessments Future Work - Internet site which staff can access during severe ... view the full minutes text for item 86.
87.	Diabetes Testing Minutes: Dr. Hoysal was in attendance to carry out diabetes testing for any Member present.
88.	Adult Services and Health Scrutiny Panel PDF 55 KB View the background to item 88. - minutes of meeting held on 10^th February, 2011 Minutes: Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Adult Services and Health Scrutiny Panel held on 10^th February, 2011, be approved as a correct record
89.	Adult Social Care and Health PDF 48 KB View the background to item 89. - minutes of meetings held on 31^st January and 14^th February, 2011 Additional documents: Minutes , 14/02/2011 Cabinet Member for Adult Independence Health and Wellbeing , item 89. PDF 43 KB Minutes: Resolved:- That the minutes of the Cabinet Member for Adult Independence Health and Wellbeing held on 31st January and 14^th February, 2011, be noted and received.
90.	KWILT Project Summary PDF 25 KB Minutes: The Policy and Scrutiny Officer presented, for information, a research study that was being conducted by the Sheffield Hallam University in conjunction with NHS Rotherham, on Keeping Warm in Later Life “KWILLT”). A focus group was to be held on 25^th March, 2011, for which they were seeking 10 Elected Members. Anyone interested in taking part should notify Kate Taylor.